PMcrunch

What does “putting your heart into your work” mean?  Is your work in alignment with your heart?

It’s tough to answer these questions without knowing where your heart is.  Many of us - me included - tend to favor our minds over our hearts.  This is strength in many ways, as it enables us to be less emotional with decision making and reacting, freeing us for objective understanding of information.  However, on the other hand, it is not all about information, understanding, and objectivity!  Emotions do play a part, and emotions somewhere along the line come from the heart.

I have always put a great deal of time and effort into my work.  But I have noticed that often, there are others that put more “feeling” into there work – not necessarily translating to time and effort, although that tends to be there also.  In these cases, the driver is the “feeling”, or the “heart”!  In a cold hearted way of thinking about it, the heart is an amazing compass for what is important and true, and hence it focuses our efforts for greater effectiveness.  Working with “heart” drives everything else.

It has been said that rational thought and reason provide a black and white picture, but the heart adds color.  This is a useful analogy, pointing out that using our hearts can provide for more insight and creativity.  Most importantly, it can provide us with the ability to listen to others in a more wholehearted way.  We all know that listening is important.  Using our hearts in the listening process can enable us to tune in to the speaker and ask more insightful and skillful questions.  When we do that, we avail ourselves to a much broader spectrum of information.

As project managers and leaders, opening up to our own hearts and listening with our hearts can deepen our experience.  Try getting in touch, and put more of your heart into your work to improve [tag-dir]communications[tag-dir].
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John Reiling, PMP
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